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December 11, 2014

This post about the Revised Knapp-Hall tarot deck is long overdue. I think I must have unconsciously delayed writing it, because of its many moving parts, and fear of not wanting to leave any of it out. But I can't bear to have 2014 pass by without my finally mentioning it, so I'll start at the beginning and do my best.

Many moons ago, I fell in love with J. Augustus Knapp's vibrant esoteric illustrations in Manly P. Hall's grand tome, The Secret Teachings of All Ages. As luck would have it, I became friends and collaborators with (amongst his many other accomplishments) the editor of the Tarcher Reader's Edition of this book, Mitch Horowitz. We exchanged several words about our mutual admiration for Knapp, whom Mitch refers to as "an occult Norman Rockwell," and I asked how I could learn more about his artwork. Mitch referred me to the wonderful librarian at LA's jewel of an esoteric library at the Philosophical Research Society, Edie Shapiro. And this led to a fantastic visit in 2012 which I've recounted here.

I wanted to do a feature in Abraxas on Knapp, and introduce his work to the wider world. But given my limited schedule, I didn't feel I could commit the time to researching and writing it myself. Some feverish googling introduced me to the splendid artist, Ken Henson, a professor at Ohio's Art Academy of Cincinnati whom I learned gave a talk about Knapp at the Lloyd Library. We struck up a correspondance, which happily culminated in several wonderful outcomes.

The first outcome was that Ken wrote an insightful and illuminating piece on Knapp for us in Abraxas issue 5, which brought to light several of Knapp's little-before-seen illustrations for writers such as John Uri Lloyd (hence the "Lloyd" Library). The PRS and Edie in particular were a huge help for this piece, and I'm thrilled with how it came out.

Secondly, Ken and I were guests on the radio show, On the Way to the Peak of Normal, together, discussing the role of magick in art, and vice versa. I had a ball speaking with him at length, and felt like we were old friends, though we hadn't yet met in person.

And thirdly, Ken and Edie continued to work together on revising - and reviving - the tarot deck that Knapp and Hall created. Originally published in 1929, this new version enlarges, color corrects, and recenters Knapp's illustrations, and has a gorgeous new back designed by Ken himself. I'm overjoyed that this deck has been resurrected, and by such talented and dear-hearted folks as Ken, Edie, and the rest of the PRS team. Full details about the deck below in Ken's words, and of course, do be sure to order yours here.

I recently collaborated with the Philosophical Research Society to revise and reissue John Augustus Knapp and Manly P. Hall's Revised New Art Tarot deck, which was originally published in 1929. The new deck is truly a magical object and is available for pre-sale on the Philosophical Research Society's website.

Regarding the Deck and the Current Revision

John Augustus Knapp (1853-1938) was in his twilight years when he began his collaborations with Manly P. Hall. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, and raised across the river in Northern Kentucky, Knapp spent the majority of his adult life in Cincinnati, where he supported his family with a successful career in illustration. It was here that Knapp became a mystic and a scholar of ancient wisdom traditions. Knapp was a 32nd degree Mason and a Scottish Rite Member, and sat on the Executive Committee of the Cincinnati branch of the Theosophical Society. He delivered lectures to the TS on topics such as “Brotherhood” and “The Septenary in Man,” and was friendly with the branch’s President, Dr. Jirah Dewey Buck, who was himself an esoteric author (Symbolism: or Mystic Masonry), and a personal friend of the TS’s founder, Helena Petrova Blavatsky.

In Cincinnati, Knapp also befriended and collaborated with other esoteric scholars, such as the author Dr. Thomas M. Stewart (The Symbolism of the Gods of the Egyptians and the Light They Throw on Freemasonry). Knapp’s most notable Cincinnati-based project was the series of illustrations he drew for the great esoteric novel Etidorhpa (1895), written by mystical alchemist and influential doctor of eclectic medicine John Uri Lloyd, one of Knapp’s closest friends and neighbor. Etidorpha would later become a subject of Manly P. Hall’s writings and lectures.

In 1919, Hall invited Knapp’s second wife, Dr. Laura C. Brickley, a doctor of eclectic medicine, to give lectures in Los Angeles, CA on the topic of occult anatomy. The Knapps found California to their liking, and John took a job as head artist of the publicity department at Thomas Ince Studios, Hollywood’s first movie studio. It did not take long for Knapp and Hall to begin their collaborations. In addition to the most famous of their collaborative work, The Secret Teachings of All Ages (1928), they worked together on several other books, including The Initiates of the Flame; The Ways of the Lonely Ones: A Collection of Mystical Allegories; The Lost Keys of Freemasonry or The Secret Of Hiram Abiff; Shadow Forms: A Collection of Occult Stories; and The Phoenix. While in Los Angeles, Knapp also illustrated The Adorers of Dionysus, written by James Morgan Pryse, founder of the Los Angeles Gnostic Society.

This is by no means a comprehensive list of J. A. Knapp’s work. I offer this as a background to demonstrate why Manly P. Hall, one of the greatest scholars of the mystery traditions in the 20th century, prized Knapp not only as an artist for his projects, but also as a fellow esotericist and mystic. To gain a cursory knowledge of the background of these two great men is to understand that you are not holding an ordinary pack of tarot cards.

The Revised New Art Tarot was the name of the original 1929 publication of this pack of cards. The title is more appropriate than ever, as we bring this deck to you––with a few revisions. The original deck was produced on small uncoated cards, as was typical of their time. We have updated them by enlarging the size while retaining the original proportions. The cards are now coated, to ensure their longevity. Due to the original printing technology, the illustrations on many of the original cards were not properly centered. This is now corrected. We paid strict attention to the color symbolism in order to create the most color-accurate reproduction of the deck possible. We also tried to preserve some of the charm of the 1929 printing by retaining the slight misregistration of the colors.

Finally, because many readers today interpret the cards in reversed position, we created a new back for the cards. The mandala we chose is in conformity with the cabalistic symbolism of the deck, and its symmetry allows the querent to be surprised by the orientation of each card when turned over in divination.

It was not our intention to be critical of the original back of the cards, taken from a detail of the iconic Bembine Tablet. Our intent has been to update the Knapp-Hall Tarot deck and bring forth a revised version that honors its original cabalistic and mystical qualities, while making concessions to a new generation of tarot enthusiasts.

As a Cincinnati-based artist who teaches at the same college that J. A. Knapp taught at, the Art Academy of Cincinnati, I feel a strong spiritual kinship with Knapp. Though he died many years before my birth, we are fellow esoteric artists. I have studied Knapp and his circle for years, feeling immersed in the constellation of their ideas and activities. As I write this, I am currently a Curtis G. Lloyd Fellow at the Lloyd Library and Museum, where I am reading selections from John Uri Lloyd’s extensive library of alchemy and magic books to write and illustrate my own alchemical treatise. Here at the Lloyd, I have spent endless hours investigating Knapp’s original illustrations for Etidorhpa. I do all this research in the spirit of continuing the work of Knapp, Lloyd, Buck, Hall, and the many hundreds of esoteric mystics who precede us.

I would like to express my warmest gratitude to Ms. Edie Shapiro, archivist at the Philosophical Research Society in Los Angeles, whose scholarship and knowledge of Manly Hall, added to the invaluable archive at the Society, have contributed so much to this project. Her knowledge has been pivotal to our efforts of unearthing and assembling information about J. A. Knapp and Manly P. Hall. I would also like to thank Dr. Yolanda Robinson, who spearheaded this project, and who is presently a professor of Tarot and Transformational Psychology at the University of Philosophical Research in Los Angeles. The three of us have worked closely as a team to bring you this reissue of the very magical Revised New Art Tarot. I sincerely hope that you enjoy unlocking this deck as much as we have. Finally, I want to express my special thanks to Tarot scholar and mystic Ron Decker, who mentored me during this project.

Drawn largely from research and ideas related to his new book Season of the Witch: How the Occult Saved Rock and Roll, author Peter Bebergal will present a multi-media presentation of the ways in which the aesthetics and mythos of rock and roll have been deeply influenced by the painters, writers, and composers of the 19th century. Bebergal will narrate a secret occult history of rock that owes its mystique to people like Aubrey Beardsley, Austin Osman Spare, Alphonse Mucha, Alexander Scriabin, and others, as well as the pomp and circumstance of the magic fraternities of that century’s Occult Revival.

Saved Rock and Roll, Too Much to Dream: A Psychedelic American Boyhood, and The Faith between Us: A Jew and a Catholic Search for the Meaning of God (with Scott Korb). He writes widely on music and books, with special emphasis on the speculative and slightly fringe. His recent essays and reviews have appeared in The Times Literary Supplement, The Quietus, BoingBoing, and The Believer. Bebergal studied religion and culture at Harvard Divinity School, and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

December 04, 2014

Stephen Romano Gallery has been on such a roll. I so appreciate how Romano's curatorial eye is eclectic and strata-agnostic, pulling from all different regions, scenes, media, price points, and career points in order to tell the most interesting imagery story he can. It's an unusual method for a gallerist, and one that's sympatico with my own. Plus, he happens to be a highly exuberant and sanguine human - another rarity in the art world.

The exhibiton is a horn of plenty in itself, celebrating the enrichment that is brought to us through culture.

"The cornucopia (from Latin cornu copiae) or horn of plenty is a symbol of abundance and nourishment, commonly a large horn-shaped container overflowing with food.

Mythology offers multiple explanations of the origin of the cornucopia. One of the best-known involves the birth and nurturance of the infant Zeus, who had to be hidden from his devouring father Cronus. In a cave on Mount Ida on the island of Crete, baby Zeus was cared for and protected by a number of divine attendants, including the goat Amalthea ("Nourishing Goddess"), who fed him with her milk. The suckling future king of the gods had unusual abilities and strength, and in playing with his nursemaid accidentally broke off one of her horns, which then had the divine power to provide unending nourishment, as the foster mother had to the God.

November 24, 2014

I was surprised to learn that Michelle Blade paints with acrylics, because her beautifully cloudy chromatics look like watercolors to me. There is something unsettling about her work that I find intoxicating: the faceless subjects, the suggestion of supernatural activity, the elements of obfuscation and revelation, the fearlessness of color. I can't help but think she would be the perfect illustrator for Jeff VanderMeer's Southern Reach Trilogy, which incidentally I can't put down at the moment.

November 21, 2014

Well this sounds like a dream exhibition, both in terms of the theme and in regard to the staggering list of some of my favorite artists who are involved. "The Botanica" is a group show curated by the illustrious A.A. Bronson and Michael Buhler-Rose that explores art as ritual, and draw parallels between the role of artist and the role of shaman. Artists include Amelia Bauer, TM Davy, Frank Haines, Chrysanne Stathacos, Scott Treleaven, and many more:

Referring to the tradition of Hispanic botanicas (religious and magical supply shops in the Americas), AA Bronson and Michael Bühler-Rose bring us a storefront featuring a variety of works from over 40 artists. The installation plays with the idea of the artist as a shaman or priest, the art object becomes a venerated deity, and the creation of the artwork is now a ritual consecration. Invoking spirits and evoking both real and imaginary religions, the artists confront the conventions of rituals, ritual objects, magical supplies, and spiritual consumerism, while engaging in the—sometimes difficult—conversation between spirituality and artistic practice.

For TM Davy’s work, Candle Cards, the artist creates a work that, at first glance due to the sheer quantity of multiples, seem like they are mechanically reproduced greeting cards. However, upon closer inspection, they are all original watercolors, and fit within his traditional artist practice. Kamrooz Aram’s studio relics, Fana/Rags, continue the conversation of the artist as Medium, while simultaneously paralleling ideas of erasure from Sufi mysticism. Matthew Schreiber’s Optical Consecration Kit invites the collector to his studio to experience the auratic infusion of otherwise static objects. Matthew Leifheit, on the other hand, consumes the secrets of David Wojnorowicz’s Magic Box (found only after his death and hidden under his bed) into sets of playing cards, allowing us to see miniature versions of themes that appear throughout his artistic practice. Rashid Johnson’s life-size Lionel Richie candle mimics the structure of a votive candle while, alternately, deifying a pop culture icon. Amelia Bauer’s For Setting One’s Intention continues with a botanica’s archetypal trove of candles, while including a Dr. Bronner-esque diatribe that gives both instructions on how to light her tree-trunk-molded-candle, and presenting advice on an introspective approach to life in general. Throughout the run of the installation, the artist Nick Doyle will be offering tattoos (by appointment only) of imagery that evokes the ideas of spirituality as a meta-experience of perception itself.

Available as affordable multiples specially made exclusively for The Botanica, many of the works act as conceptual instigators, challenging the theory of contemporary art as a wholly religious experience for a secular audience; while others introduce more traditional botanica wares.

* * *

AA Bronson’s work—as an artist, curator, and educator—is dominated by the practice of collaboration and consensus. From his beginnings in a free school and commune, through his 25 years as one of the artists of General Idea, in his deep involvement with founding and developing collaborative and social structures such as Art Metropole, the NY Art Book Fair and AA Bronson’s School for Young Shamans, and through his current collaborations with younger generations, he has focused on the politics of decision-making and on living life radically as social sculpture.

Michael Bühler-Rose is an artist and an Instructor at the Rhode Island School of Design, as well as a purohita (Hindu priest). His study and practice of Vaishnavism, Sanskrit, kalpa (ritual), and philosophy over the last 20 years have prompted extended stays in India, including one as a Fulbright Fellow, his work on these platforms influence his artistic production. In his photographs, videos and installations he explores the relationship between the art object and the artist as a parallel to a venerated deity and a priest, and aesthetic experience as ultimately religious. Bühler-Rose will be participating in a panel discussion at the New Museum called “Reordering the World: Religion and Myth in Contemporary Art” on Thursday, Dec. 18, 7-9pm.

This sounds like it's going to be rather epic, and I can't wait to head over to Invisible Exports once the show opens to get a big hit of image magic.

Today we see a growing interest in fringe consciousness experiences long associated with the "occult": clairvoyance, telepathy, precognition, and encounters with disembodied spirit. Burners return from the playa startled by the high incidence of synchronicity, and the uncanny moments when they caught their friends thoughts before words passed through their lips. Rigorous lab studies are demonstrating that these experiences are more than just superstition. At the same time, once-sober minded, skeptical shamanic journeyers return from ceremonies with plant spirit medicine convinced that consciousness permeates the universe. The contemporary occult expresses itself quite differently than the one we associate with 19th century seances, table tipping, Madame Blavatsky, W.B. Yeats and the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. For instance, whatever happened to Ouija boards? Similarly, the mysticism of the 60s counterculture, with its obsessive throwing of the I Ching and the hippie levitation of the Pentagon, seems a far cry from how the occult appears today.

But are the differences really so great? To explore this topic, we've gathered some of Reality Sandwich's most knowledgeable and popular writers on the occult.

Featured Speakers:

Gary Lachman - Inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a founding member and bassist for Blondie. Has written for The Guardian, Mojo, Times Literary Supplement, and more. Author of "Aleister Crowley: Magick, Rock and Roll, and the Wickedest Man in the World" and "The Secret History of Consciousness."

David Metcalfe - David is an independent researcher, writer and multimedia artist focusing on the interstices of art, culture, and consciousness. He writes regularly for Evolutionary Landscapes, Alarm Magazine, Modern Mythology, Disinfo.com, The Teeming Brain and his own blog The Eyeless Owl.

Pam Grossman - Pam is an independent curator, writer, and teacher of magical practice and history. She is the creator of the blog Phantasmaphile and the Associate Editor of Abraxas International Journal of Esoteric Studies.

It all starts in mid-November with a live, interactive video discussion led by our featured authors. You can take part in the conversation, just like a Skype call, able to ask questions and offer observations on camera. Then the discussion moves to a text forum for 4 weeks of dialog and debate by the RS community, led by the featured authors and moderated by the RS team.

November 06, 2014

Darren Waterston's work is a relatively recent discovery me, having tumbled head over heels in love with it at his Mass MOCA exhibition earlier this year. Since then, he's been one of the artists I think about the most. I think about him when I'm ruminating about Japanese aesthetics. I think about him when I'm swooning over sci-fi film cells. I think about him when I consider bestiaries, cabinets of curiosity, gothic novels, the value of art installations, Caspar David Friedrich, or plumes of smoke. He comes up for me over and over again, because his work encompasses so much while being deceptively elegant and relatively quiet.

His pieces are beautiful - a word that's overused to be sure, but important to include not only because it's true in this instance, but because it is difficult to create beauty that has depth and nuance and newness. And because beauty is so often dismissed by art institutions as not having very much to say, unless it's being used as a tool of irony. Waterston's beauty feels both inventive and utterly timeless. I want to see them hanging in temples and projected from a planetarium with a prog rock soundtrack, in equal measure.

I'll have to settle for seeing it in the gallery setting for now, and lucky for me, he has a new show called "Split the Lark" opening tonight at NYC's DC Moore Gallery. I would be there myself if I weren't currently on the left coast, but I can't wait to visit it as soon as I'm home. Full details:

DC Moore Gallery is pleased to present Split the Lark, an exhibition of new paintings and architectural forms by Darren Waterston. A catalogue with an essay by Jacques Khalip accompanies the exhibition.

The work on view looks to the improbable images and the charged warning of an Emily Dickinson poem to explore the mystery of interiority and the boundaries we violate to satisfy our desire to know.

By turns beautiful, unsettling, and spare, Waterston’s work melds unlikely color and elusory subject matter. The abstracted imagery shades back and forth between the physical and the ephemeral, evoking wounds seeping into the landscape, or spiraling wings slicing through luminous skies. Jacques Khalip writes in his essay, “How to paint suffering, passion, or bliss? What figures and shapes emerge out of energies that do not belong to us? Such concerns come with pleasures that allow us to love what is inaccessible, and to feel deeply what is not of this world at all.”

The sculptural panels exhibited in Split the Lark deconstruct the forms of ecclesiastical objects such as confessional partitions and devotional objects, especially Matthias Grünewald’s 16th century Isenheim Altarpiece. Created for the monastic chapel of the Hospital of St. Anthony, this canonical work reveals both acute suffering and ecstatic salvation through its movable components. Waterston’s large-format Triptych (Twilight) is based on this polyptych structure. Its hinged side panels are flayed open, inviting close examination. Other freestanding or leaning panels assert their physicality while prompting viewers to probe recesses and shadows, looking beyond the surface. This immersive quality echoes Waterston’s site-responsive installations, particularly his subversive reimagining of James McNeill Whistler’s Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room, currently on view at MASS MoCA.

Darren Waterston graduated with a BFA from the Otis Art Institute in 1988, having previously studied at the Akademie der Künste and the Hochschule für Bildende Künste, both in Germany. His exhibition Uncertain Beauty, which includes the installation Filthy Lucre, is currently on view at MASS MoCA in North Adams, MA through February 23rd, and will travel to The Smithsonian Institution’s Freer/Sackler Galleries in May 2015. Darren Waterston: Filthy Lucre was recently published by Skira Rizzoli in association with MASS MoCA and the Freer/Sackler. Waterston lives and works in New York City.

October 31, 2014

You can watch it here, though there are some NSFW (AKA Nude Satanic Fetid Witches) bits, so be warned:

You can also watch it in its entirety here, or in 5-part chunks here. And you can read the full transcript here.

I am indebted to Violet Lucca from Film Comment, who not only invited me to do the project, but was its tireless and brilliant editor both for the video and the text, and who was a delight to work with. Thank you, Violet!

Wishing you all a blessed Samhain, and a wonderful, witchly Halloween.

October 29, 2014

Today marks the 9 year anniversary of Phantasmaphile, and I'm feeling a great deal of joy and gratitude about all this odd little blog has brought to my life: more art, deeper magick, new opportunities, and so many dear, dear friends. This year alone has been an embarrassment of riches in terms of projects and travels, taking me from Lily Dale to London and beyond, and I'm excited for what's coming next, and grateful to you all for joining me on the journey.

A few changes have happened as well: as mentioned here, Observatory is no longer with us as of August, so I've been flying solo, and giving talks and running events at various venues in the US and UK since. If you'd like to be sure you're kept updated about all of that, please join my mailing list here. It's a monthly-or-so roundup of my various esoteric art activities, and it's the best way to make sure you don't miss anything.

Lastly, Phantasmaphile remains sponsor- and ad-free, and I'd like to continue to keep it that way. If you'd consider making a donation to help offset hosting costs and platform fees, I would be most appreciative. You can do so here or by clicking this shiny button:

Thank you as ever for your interest, your eyeballs, and your continued support. May our paths continue to cross in the digital, aetheric, and material realms. I'm so glad we've found each other.

October 27, 2014

I've writtern about Nino Japaridze's work here twicebefore and with good reason: her vibrant pieces have a distinct surrealist lineage, but still feel wholly fresh and surprising. Her latest project consists of her take on the tarot in its entirety - not unfamiliar territory for preceding artists. Yet in Japaridze's skilled hands and under her distinct vision, it's renewed. Her mixed-media works don't feel derivitive like so many of the decks out there which steal shamelessly from Pamela Colman Smith's designs. Rather, these cards are unique and fantastical, teeming with color and alternative visual interpretations of the classic tarot tropes. Additionally, this deck has different suits: Winds, Fire, Tides, and Gardens, rather than the usual Swords, Wands, Cups, and Pentacles; and new entities such as The Stranger, The Jester, and The Drowned.

All 78 original paintings from the deck will be on display as part of the Gallery of Surrealism's "Japaridze Tarot" show at Paris' Hotel Drouot beginning this Thursday, October 30th through November 5th:

Japaridze Tarot, a re-imagining of the Tarot universe through the visionary lens of leading Franco-Georgian contemporary artist Nino Japaridze, is a hypnotic, deeply contemplative series of seventy eight original paintings in oil, acrylic, gouache, ink, and collage created over a period of two years.

Steve Lucas, owner of New York's Gallery of Surrealism which represents Japaridze, proposed to the artist in 2011 that she create twenty two works inspired by the Major Arcana of traditional Tarot. As the remarkable works neared completion, they came to the attention of legendary Tarot authority and collector Stuart Kaplan. Kaplan, author of the four-volume Encyclopedia of Tarot and whose company, U.S. Games Systems, is the world's foremost publisher of Tarot decks, was fascinated by Japaridze's timeless and mesmerizing images and determined to publish them under his imprint. He challenged the artist to create an additional fifty six paintings constituting a complete tarot deck. The artist, undaunted by the tripling of her efforts, was intrigued and created the remainder of the deck over the following year.

Born and raised in the Republic of Georgia's capital city of Tbilisi, Nino Japaridze has been a full-time artist her entire life. She moved to Paris over twenty years ago and has painted and exhibited there since that time. Her recent projects include L'Eternel Retour, an exhibition which premiered in 2010 at Paris' Palais de Tokyo and The Master and Margarita, a portfolio of four hand-painted etchings published in 2012.

In addition to the seventy eight original mixed media paintings for the Japaridze Tarot, all of which will be on view to the public for the first time, Gallery of Surrealism and Hotel Drouot are pleased to present the premiere of U.S. Games Systems' deluxe publication, a boxed set containing the Tarot card deck and 178-page book with full-color artwork.

Parisians, do be sure to see this beauteous work in person. Those of us who live elsewhere will be able to content ourselves with the marvelous deck itself, released by none other than US Games this month - perfect timing for Samhain divinations.

But I'm also here as friend of Fulgur Esoterica and a fangirl of so many of the artists whose work will be featured in the Fulgur's I:MAGE: Travelling with Unfamiliar Spirits group art exhibition opening tomorrow night from 6-9pm at the Cob Gallery, as well as an enthusiastic attendee of some of the other otherwordly events they have scheduled in conjunction with the show. Once again, here's everything you need to know:

I:MAGE: Travelling with Unfamiliar Spirits

Cob Gallery, London

20th October – November 2nd

www.cobgallery.com

The spirit world comes to life in this two-week-long celebration of esoteric art. The show’s theme coincides with the time of year: the beginning of the dark months. Popular culture calls it Hallowe’en but contemporary Witches and Druids across Europe and North America call it Samhain, Heathens Winter Nights, Greek reconstructionist movements Thesmophoria; Vodou practitioners celebrate Fete Ghede, followers of Santeria and indigenous religions in Latin America observe Día de los Muertos, while Welsh folklore advises staying away from cemeteries on Calan Gaeaf. In most magical and esoteric traditions the end of October is a sacred time of year, a time for honouring the dead and communicating with the spirit world. It is a time to acknowledge the winter months and delve into the darker part of the year and of the self. The boundaries between the familiar and what is Other shatter. The veil is thin. The magic begins.

In keeping with this significant event, I:MAGE 2 will reflect on the idea of communicating with spirits and travelling between worlds by inviting artists to place their work as a manifestation of one of the following:

Communicating with Celestial Spirits: You engage with the planetary and celestial spirits of the universe’s heavenly spheres, aiming towards the divine. From Blake’s Jacob’s Dream to Kandinsky’s Composition VII, these works may look at planetary attributes or the achievement of higher spheres of the Tree of Life.

Communicating with Chthonic Spirits: You engage with the underworld, the dead, the deepest, most recondite aspects of magic, art and self. Such works include Rodin’s Orpheus and Eurydice and Leonora Carrington’s Down Below.

We promise you two weeks of magic, art and celebration and we warmly invite you to join us.

I:MAGE Events:

Tonight, we open our doors to the spirit world and to our friends with an informal drinks and canapés reception. At 7 p.m. Robert Ansell will give a ten-minute speech explaining the concept of the show and will introduce the artists who were able to join us. They come from Russia, Italy, New York, Ireland and they are eager to talk about magic and art. Come and mingle, meet friends and experience world-class esoteric art. Please note: This event is…

Colour has enormous potential for facilitating lateral thinking and free association. It is these qualities that make it such a powerful concept in esoteric thought, theory and practice. As a history of the idea of colours from antiquity to the present, the workshop will rely primarily on colour ‘systems’ articulated in Agrippa’s Three Books of Occult Philosophy and the work of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. As a hands on practium, the workshop will…

Join us for an evening of Icelandic magic, dream visions and art. Tonight, the artists Jesse Bransford and Max Razdow will discuss and answer questions about ‘The Veil of Dreams’, a six-month-long project in which the artists attempted to synchronise their dreams and shared them online using common symbols. They will further discuss and show photo-documentation of the last stages of the project, a pilgrimage to Iceland. The original dream journals will be exhibited tonight…

Organised by Fulgur Esoterica, this one-day of lecture aims to offer an insight into the emerging category of esoteric art by focusing on what has been defined as one of its key aspects – the engagement between artists and spirit entities and what this means in terms of artistic expression. The I:MAGE day of lectures will take place at the Warburg Institute, one of the most renowned centres…

Anthropologists have always had a very ambivalent attitude towards magic. To some degree this is because they are heirs to the Enlightenment tradition which sees religion as a matter of humans foolishly bowing down before their own creations, confusing their own powers with exterior natural or supernatural forces. But magicians don’t really do that. So there’s always a creeping sense that in some way, they actually do get it right. What’s more, one has to ask: if what’s called ‘fetishism’…

This epic cultural and historical odyssey unearths the full influence of occult traditions on rock and roll—from the Beatles to Black Sabbath—and shows how the marriage between mysticism and music changed our world.

From the hoodoo-inspired sounds of Elvis Presley to the Eastern odysseys of George Harrison, from the dark dalliances of Led Zeppelin to the Masonic imagery of today’s hip-hop scene, the occult has long breathed life into rock and hip-hop—and, indeed, esoteric and supernatural traditions are a key ingredient behind the emergence and development of rock and roll.

With vivid storytelling and laser-sharp analysis, writer and critic Peter Bebergal illuminates this web of influences to produce the definitive work on how the occult shaped—and saved—popular music.

As Bebergal explains, occult and mystical ideals gave rock and roll its heart and purpose, making rock into more than just backbeat music, but into a cultural revolution of political, spiritual, sexual, and social liberation.

Drawn largely from research and ideas related to his new book Season of the Witch: How the Occult Saved Rock and Roll, author Peter Bebergal will present a multi-media presentation of the ways in which the aesthetics and mythos of rock and roll have been deeply influenced by the painters, writers, and composers of the 19th century. Bebergal will narrate a secret occult history of rock that owes its mystique to people like Aubrey Beardsley, Austin Osman Spare, Alphonse Mucha, Alexander Scriabin, and others, as well as the pomp and circumstance of the magic fraternities of that century's Occult Revival.

Peter Bebergal is the author of Season of the Witch: How the Occult Saved Rock and Roll, Too Much to Dream: A Psychedelic American Boyhood, and The Faith between Us: A Jew and a Catholic Search for the Meaning of God (with Scott Korb). He writes widely on music and books, with special emphasis on the speculative and slightly fringe. His recent essays and reviews have appeared in The Times Literary Supplement, The Quietus, BoingBoing, and The Believer. Bebergal studied religion and culture at Harvard Divinity School, and lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

And there are lots of other events for the book release in Boston and NYC that you can check out here.

In sum: Order the book here. Order your tickets for our December event in Brooklyn here. And cue the Zep.

Please join us for this discussion with Chicago-based photographer, Rik Garrett, and Brooklyn’s esoteric doyenne, Pam Grossman, in celebration of the release of “Earth Magic,” Garrett’s book of witch photographs.

Through the traditional wet plate collodion process, Garrett has created images of feminine enchantment that feel out of time and otherworldly. These pictures are haunting and sensual at once, giving intimate glimpses into his dark muses’ rituals, while managing to never lose their mystery. Using camera as scrying mirror, Garrett is a magician unto himself, bringing us visual messages from the beyond.

Are art and magick one and the same? Why do witches still have such allure? And who are Garrett’s enigmatic women in the woods?

These topics will be covered, and more, during this rare evening of artistry and inquiry.

Copies of “Earth Magic” will be available for sale and signing by the artist. Wine reception to follow.

Rik Garrett was born and raised in Washington State. Growing up next to his mother’s darkroom provided a life-long focus on analog photographic experimentation. This combined with long-term fixations on the subjects of witchcraft, feminine archetypes and humankind’s relationship with nature led to the Earth Magic series, photographed with the wet plate collodion process. His work has been exhibited around the United States and Europe. Garrett currently lives in Chicago, where he recurrently teaches in the photography department at School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Pam Grossman is an independent curator, writer, and teacher of magical practice and history. She is the creator of Phantasmaphile, a blog which specializes in art and culture with an esoteric or fantastical bent, and the Associate Editor of Abraxas International Journal of Esoteric Studies. She is co-organizer of the Occult Humanities Conference at NYU, and was the co-founder of Brooklyn’s original offbeat events space, Observatory. Her group art showsand projects have been featured by such outlets as Artforum, Newsweek, New York Magazine, Boing Boing, Art & Antiques Magazine, CREATIVE TIME, Time Out New York, Juxtapoz, Arthur, 20×200, UrbanOutfitters.com, and Neil Gaiman’s Twitter.Pam’s writing has appeared in numerous mediums, including The Huffington Post, MSN.com, the Etsy blog, Sciences Occultes magazine, and various Fulgur press publications, including the introduction for Rik Garrett’s monograph, Earth Magic. By day, she is Getty Images’ Director of Visual Trends.

October 08, 2014

I gasped out loud when I saw these new deluxe, highly-limited editions of The Emerald Tablet, just released by alchemy scholar and artist, Brian Cotnoir on Khepri Press. The Emerald Tablet is perhaps the most famous alchemical text, allegedly written by Hermes Trismegistus himself (and translated several times over including by Sir Isaac Newton). It is considered both a mystic poem and a sacred recipe said to hold the secrets of creation and transmutation. Though the price of these is steep, they are works of art in and of themselves, complete with two new translations of the Arabic and Latin versions of the text, new commentary by Cotnoir, and accordian folio production in stamped Moroccan leather. Full details:

The Emerald Tablet

"The Emerald Tablet one of the root texts of alchemy is a brief alchemical work attributed to Hermes Trismegistus. Historically the work is part of the Hermetic corpus and seems to have the same origins as the rest of the Corpus Hermeticum.

The text was discovered, according to one version of the legend, by Apollonius of Tyana. After an earthquake a passageway opened up beneath a statue that led to a subterranean chamber. Seated there was a statue of Hermes Trismegistus holding a tablet of green stone (smaragda) engraved with the text of what is now known as the Emerald Tablet. The earliest known surviving texts are attributed to Apollonius of Tyana and it is the Arabic and Latin versions that are considered in this new work.

This edition is a collection of new translations of those earliest extant Arabic and Latin versions with accompanying essay and commentary. It is a distillation of the chapter on the Emerald Tablet in my forthcoming book Alchemy: The Poetry of Matter. There I present a more complete discussion, analysis and experimentation. Here I present it as a Hermetic work of art – a talismanic book in form, function and result. The Emerald Tablet is not only a fresh contribution to alchemical studies it is also an example of book art at its finest.

Drawing on the elements of Islamic and Western sacred geometry in their design, the two cover emblems visually indicate the Arabic side and the Latin side of the book. The overall design and typesetting from case to cover to page to word to letter evolved from the same Hermetic principles and follows from these same geometries.

This publication is a collection of new translations of the earliest extant Arabic and Latin versions with accompanying essay and commentary.

The Emerald Tablet is not only a fresh contribution to alchemical studies it is also an example of book art at its finest. Drawing on the elements of Islamic and Western sacred geometry in their design, the two cover emblems visually indicate the Arabic side and the Latin side of the book. The overall design and typesetting follow from these same geometries."

Designed by Brian Cotnoir. Typeset by Lara Captan – English and Latin in Seria & Seria Sans by Martin Majoor; the Arabic in DecoType Naskh by Thomas Milo & Mirjam Somers. Letterpress printed by Roni Gross on Magnani Book paper with marbled end sheets. Cover Emblem Designs by Daud Sutton. Bound by Biruta Auna. Polymer plates by Boxcar Press.

October 06, 2014

Stephen Romano Gallery is at it again this month, this time announcing a quadruple, witch-themed bill so heavy and heavenly that I'll just start by listing it all here:

William Mortensen "American Grotesque"

William Mortensen (1897 - 1965) was an American Photographer, primarily known for his Hollywood portraits in the 1920s-1940s in the pictorialist style.

Mortensen began his photographic career taking portraits of Hollywood actors and film stills. In 1931, after being blacklisted and excommunicated from Hollywood, Mortensen moved to the artist community of Laguna Beach, CA where he opened a studio and the William Mortensen School of Photography.

He preferred the pictorialism style of manipulating photographs to produce romanticist painting-like effects. The style brought him criticism from straight photographers of the modern realist movement and, in particular, he carried on a prolonged written debate with Ansel Adams. His arguments defending romanticism photography led him to be "ostracized from most authoritative canons of photographic history. Recent years have brought praise for Mortensen's development of manipulation techniques and a renewed interest in his work.

***

Rik Garrett "Earth Magic"

"With Earth Magic I've envisioned a matristic, nature-based world; a female-centric, ritualistic community completely apart from the rest of society. This is a history of witchcraft devoid of witch hunts, a race of women who draw their energy and inspiration from the Earth itself. What if there were a truth to the myths of Amazons and the books like Aradia, Gospel of the Witches? What if the fierce Maenads of Greek mythology still existed today, hidden from view? What if these truths were presented faithfully?" Rik Garrett.

***

Lu Zhang "All the Lost Souls"featuring an illustrated catalog with essay by Robert Morgan

Stephen Romano Gallery is pleased to present the first ever New York solo exhibition of works by Chinese artist Lu Zhang. Lu's photographic and video performance works are based on her nostalgia and longing for the covert shamanic practices of her homeworld, which she uses to exorcise herself of unwanted excess emotional attachments and baggage. Lu Zhang will be presenting a series of photographic and video works entitled "All The Lost Souls" which is an attempt to conjure through memory, ritual, unleashing of sexual energies as well as through a detachment from all thing that bind us to our past (such as home, family, relations) the spirits that dwell in the landscape of our ecosystem as well as the spirits of the inner landscape. Lu Zhang has previously exhibited at Ouchi Gallery, Steuben Gallery, A.I.R GALLERY, New York, Black box Gallery, New York and The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, New York.

There will also be a performance art piece, coinciding with these shows:

JODIE LYN-KEE-CHOW "The calling of the light"performance work - November 7th 2014 8pm

"My recollections come from a childhood reared in the Caribbean, at the edges of standardized Western culture, where daily struggle causes those standards to drift in odd ways. In some ways my idyllic Jamaica no longer exists. An immigrant's memory of their country is both frozen in time and lives a life of its own, and perhaps comes to represent something else entirely. My work aims to pinpoint that fleeting image of a perfect landscape by its raw nature, and wondrous paradox. It is this desire for an ideal landscape that intrigues and invites me to interact with it.

The accumulation of goods, luxurious lifestyles, socio-economic changes, and cultural development carry a political and social intent. The obsession of capital and consumption has informed my process where objects whether functional or not infiltrate a space, questioning its purpose or function. Natural landscapes often set the stage and are combined with media, costuming, and props that are handmade, manufactured, natural and artificial to accessorize the environment.

Most of my work combines performance in the realms of social practice with either ready-made objects or my sculptures or both. Some of these performances address a critical analysis of desire, cultural ideologies, and environmental degradation. Often working with site-specificity, whether in rural to city, suburban to urban I hope to engage the viewer to question respect for societal and cultural norms, and most importantly the state of our natural world."

And it will be a joy to finally see Rik Garrett's photographs in person. I've met Rik a few times, and had the deep privilege of writing the intro to his monograph, Earth Magic, but I have yet to see an exhibition of them, so this will be a real treat. Happily, my talk with Rik at Catland was rescheduled to Friday, October 17th, the night before the opening of these shows, so stars have truly aligned to unveil his magickal work to NYC that weekend.

The other shows sound tremendous as well. The opening reception for all four is at Stephen Romano Gallery in DUMBO on Saturday, October 18th from 4-8pm, and they willall be on view from October 15th through November 30th.

Thrilled to get to steep myself in so many witch works this autumn, and I imagine you will be, too.

September 30, 2014

I encountered Danie Mellor's towering blue drawings at the National Museum of Scotland, where his stunning exhibition, Primordial: SuperNaturalBayiMinyjirral, is currently up. Mellor's work explores the interface and overlap between indigenous peoples and western culture. Some of it feels like an act of parallelism, weaving threads between animism and esoterism, showing that they are two sides of the same spiritual coin. Several of his pieces look like alchemical manuscripts, though upon closer examination, one sees they are populated by natives in traditional dress. I particularly love this piece above, which is Masonic and Aboriginal at once. There is definitely visual commentary about colonialism and co-option here that can't be ignored as well, and makes me think about the ways in which we idealize "primitivism" or paganism, all the while blighting it with our so-called civilization. Lots of food for thought here, and what a resplendent feast it is.

September 28, 2014

A few weeks ago, Tin Can Forest sent me a package that was such an embarrassment of riches that I feel compelled to share all of its contents with you here.

There were 3 of their occulty, folkloric comic books, each more bewilderingly beautiful and puzzling and bewitching than the last, including:

Baba Yaga and the Wolf, a sort of family legend about an ancestor's encounter with the infamous witch of the Eastern European woods:

Wax Cross, a mishmash (in the best possible way) of dark fairy tales and rituals and dead creatures and their nocturnal gatherings:

...and A Cabbage in a Nutshell No. 1, which the creators describe as "...the first installment of an anthrotheological mystery set in a bygone future as told from the vantage point of an occulttastically informed super-future," and I can't do any better at summing it up than that:

...and here is one of its many strange pages:

Let's go over what is seen here: An ovoid-faced witch, a red-hooded girl, a sullen teen, black candles, a full moon, and three village men in traditional-meets-astro dress dancing on a carpet of mushrooms next to a boombox playing a song with the words "DARKNESS FALLS ON THE CITY IT SEEMS TO FOLLOW YOU TOO." And oh, the devil, come to take away a man named Ludwig, who is busy installing a telephone. And that's just page 7.

What does it all mean? I haven't the faintest idea. And this one page is indicative of all of Tin Can Forest's mad and marvelous stories. Each reads like a surrealist cut-up, or the recounting of someone's dreams, or an incantation done on psychotropics by way of Dewey decimal section 398 in your neighborhood library. One must approach the reading of these illustrated texts in the same frame of mind one might read poetry or view a David Lynch film. It's nonsensical and cryptic, intriguing and enchanting, and draws from some deep well of half-remembered wonder tales and vivid imagery ribbons spooling out from the collective unconscious.

What I do know, is that these are some of the most breathtaking books I've ever beheld. The illustrations manage to be both incredibly lush and ultra-cool, chock full of magic and style. The words are like lyrics from a thousand songs, rewoven into a narrative that is fictive but rooted in heritage and full of secret truths. There are talking animals galore, and kerchief-wearing witches, and an antler-headed boy riding a goat, and black skies, and strapping zombies, and a baby in a bonnet holding a grimoire. What more does a person need?

Honestly, I'm not sure what else to say about Tin Can Forest, other than to include their bio, which is far more succinct and clear than I've been here:

Pat Shewchuk and Marek Colek are Canadian artists based in Toronto Ontario and Salt Spring Island BC, who work collaboratively under the name Tin Can Forest. They create sequential art, film and books. Their art is inspired by the the forests of Canada, Slavic art, and occult folklore.

September 27, 2014

We regret that we have to postpone tonight's event at Catland with Rik Garrett and myself. Rik's was one of the many flights that got canceled due to the Chicago airport fire. He is safe and sound at home, though regretful he can't make it this evening. Happily, we've already been able to secure a new date for the event, which will now be Friday, October 17th, 8pm, and still at Catland. Please mark your calendars! (And in a merry twist of fate, this will also better coincide with Rik's show opening that week at Stephen Romano Gallery in DUMBO.)

We're sorry for any snafus this may have caused in your plans, and we look forward to seeing you in a few short weeks on the 17th.

Through a Glass Darkly: A Conversation on Witches, Photography, and the Creative Urge with Rik Garrett and Pam Grossman

Please join us for this discussion with Chicago-based photographer, Rik Garrett, and Brooklyn’s esoteric doyenne, Pam Grossman, in celebration of the release of “Earth Magic,” Garrett’s book of witch photographs.

Through the traditional wet plate collodion process, Garrett has created images of feminine enchantment that feel out of time and otherworldly. These pictures are haunting and sensual at once, giving intimate glimpses into his dark muses’ rituals, while managing to never lose their mystery. Using camera as scrying mirror, Garrett is a magician unto himself, bringing us visual messages from the beyond.

Are art and magick one and the same? Why do witches still have such allure? And who are Garrett’s enigmatic women in the woods?

These topics will be covered, and more, during this rare evening of artistry and inquiry.

Copies of “Earth Magic” will be available for sale and signing by the artist. Wine reception to follow.

Rik Garrett was born and raised in Washington State. Growing up next to his mother’s darkroom provided a life-long focus on analog photographic experimentation. This combined with long-term fixations on the subjects of witchcraft, feminine archetypes and humankind’s relationship with nature led to the Earth Magic series, photographed with the wet plate collodion process. His work has been exhibited around the United States and Europe. Garrett currently lives in Chicago, where he recurrently teaches in the photography department at School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Pam Grossman is an independent curator, writer, and teacher of magical practice and history. She is the creator of Phantasmaphile, a blog which specializes in art and culture with an esoteric or fantastical bent, and the Associate Editor of Abraxas International Journal of Esoteric Studies. She is co-organizer of the Occult Humanities Conference at NYU, and was the co-founder of Brooklyn’s original offbeat events space, Observatory. Her group art showsand projects have been featured by such outlets as Artforum, Newsweek, New York Magazine, Boing Boing, Art & Antiques Magazine, CREATIVE TIME, Time Out New York, Juxtapoz, Arthur, 20×200, UrbanOutfitters.com, and Neil Gaiman’s Twitter.Pam’s writing has appeared in numerous mediums, including The Huffington Post, MSN.com, the Etsy blog, Sciences Occultes magazine, and various Fulgur press publications, including the introduction for Rik Garrett’s monograph, Earth Magic. By day, she is Getty Images’ Director of Visual Trends.

September 25, 2014

Apologies for the radio silence. My feller and I were traveling throughout Scotland, and I've been scaling Mt. Email ever since our return. Our trip was truly sublime, replete with whisky and mist and moss and magicks large and small. The country is laden with sacred spaces, and I got dizzy on churches and lichen-laced standing stones galore. Highlights for me included communing with the Clava Cairns, playing macabre I Spy at the megalithic wedding cake that is Rosslyn Chapel, paying respects at the Edinburgh Witches' Well, and hiking the Quiraing on the unbelievable Isle of Skye.

It's all put me very much in the frame of mind of seeking out holy places here at home. How fortunate that the Marcel Storr show is up at Andrew Edlin Gallery this month then. Storr's drawings of neon cathedrals and sci-fi-soaked latticed buildings first came to my attention at the gallery's booth at the Outsider Art Fair this summer. One had to enter a curtained room to view the pieces, which were spotlit and glowing like strange square sunsets in the dark. Happily the full show is exhibited in the same way: shadowy, contemplative, and punctuated with heady, acidic color. Can't wait to visit with them again, and feel their charge.

Marcel Storr Reimagining Paris

September 13 - October 25, 2014

Andrew Edlin Gallery is excited to announce Marcel Storr: Reimagining Paris, the first ever U.S. exhibition of works by the self-taught French artist whose unusual, painstakingly rendered drawings of churches and futuristic fantasy worlds have been shown only a few times in Europe since their discovery in the 1970s. The exhibition of approximately fifteen artworks will run from September 13 – October 25, 2014. A 78-page catalog with an essay by Anne Doran will be published in conjunction with the exhibition.

Born in Paris, Marcel Storr (1911-1976) was abandoned at the age of three and endured a difficult childhood. He was sent to work on farms and eventually packed off to Alsace to be cared for by nuns. By 1932, he had begun creating his first drawings of churches, but his art-making was a deeply personal, secretive activity. He supported himself with odd jobs and in the mid-1940s worked at the Les Halles food market in Paris. Almost two decades later, he married and became a street sweeper in the Bois de Boulogne, the large public park in the western part of the French capital.

Meanwhile, Storr’s artwork was developing through several distinct phases. Until the early 1960s, the pictures he had made of churches were marked by extreme attention to detail and an effort to portray his subject matter with a certain realism. During the late 1960s, his drawings grew larger; in these, Storr began depicting fantasy structures of imposing scale and character, including palatial cathedrals whose forms brought to mind such icons of religious architecture as the Basilique du Sacré Coeur in Paris or the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. Storr first worked in pencil, and then filled in his drawings with ink.

Storr produced his last related group of pictures during the final decade of his life. Now known as “The Megalopolises,” these works depict delirious agglomerations of towering, ziggurat-like structures connected by buttress-bridges, as well as otherworldly urban vistas, often set against dramatically colored skies. Storr believed that Paris would one day be destroyed in a nuclear attack and that the President of the United States would need his drawings to rebuild the French capital. Rich affinities between Storr’s creations and other architectural forms abound, including their unwitting allusions to the temples of Angkor Wat, Cambodia; images of future cities in sci-fi films and cartoons; and the elaborate, richly textured “Ideal Palace,” a large, outdoor sculpture the postman Ferdinand Cheval (1836-1924) constructed of found stones in southeastern France.

In 1971, the Parisian couple, Bertrand and Liliane Kempf, discovered Storr’s work through the artist’s wife. In his lifetime, Storr produced a total of 63 known pictures, all of which the Kempfs acquired after his death. Some of the works were publicly displayed for the first time in 2001 in an exhibition at Halle Saint-Pierre in Paris. Later, the French art historian Laurent Danchin organized a solo exhibition which opened at the Pavillon Carré de Baudouin in Paris in 2011. Last summer, a major selection of Storr’s drawings was prominently featured in the Hayward Gallery’s The Alternative Guide to the Universe in London.

September 09, 2014

We're thrilled to announce not one but two new issues of Abraxas this month! Our 6th issue includes pieces from Penny Slinger, Liz Insognia, and a special double feature on Leonora Carrington, including brand new and exclusive scholarship by Susan L. Aberth on Carrington's visual spellcraft. We're also launching our 2nd special issue, which focuses on occult cinema, edited by Jack Sargeant, and called Luminous Screen. Get these glories before they're all gone. Full details:

Abraxas journal Issue #6 offers more than 160 large format pages of essays, poetry, interviews and art. Printed using state-of-the-art offset lithography to our usual high standard, contributions for Abraxas #6 include an interview by Anja Dorofeeva with the artist, Penny Slinger, who also kindly designed the cover for this issue; an evocative photographic essay by Victoria Ballesteros of Marjorie Cameron performing a Chen-style sword form of tai-chi, published here for the first time; Matt Marble explores the Hermes of Harlem, Robert T. Browne; Kelly Hayes shares with us a powerful series of images documenting the spiritual lives of an Afro-Brazilian community just outside Rio de Janerio; and we are especially pleased to offer a special feature on Leonora Carrington, with essays from two leading scholars; Susan L. Aberth and Wouter J. Hanegraaff…

Our hardback issue is limited to just 300 copies bound in silver-green cloth blocked in cream with a design after Leonora Carrington. The endpapers are jet-black 150gsm stock. There is also a custom fitted dust-jacket that mirrors the design of the paperback issue.

Luminous Screen is our second Special Issue of Abraxas. It is a collection of essays commissioned by guest editor Jack Sargeant that seek to explore the impact of esotericism on cinema. Printed using state-of-the-art offset lithography to our usual high standard, subjects for Luminous Screen range from the early German expressionist cinema of F.W. Murnau, to the contemporary arthouse films of Lars von Trier. In each essay, esoteric themes within these works are identified and analysed.

September 08, 2014

I am intrigued and excited by the upcoming "FUTURE FEMINISM" show opening at The Hole next week. The lovechild of Antony, Kembra Pfahler, Johanna Constantine, Bianca Casady and Sierra Casady, it's an exhibition of rose quartz tablets carved with the collective's "13 Tenets of Future Feminism," as well as a 13-night performance series featuring such luminaries as Laurie Anderson, Anne Waldman, Kiki Smith, Lydia Lunch, Marina Abramovic, Anne Carson, and CocoRosie. When asked about why the number 13 was chosen, Antony responded, “It’s the witches’ hour!” Certainly resonates with me. Full details here:

Future Feminism

The Hole NYC

September 11 – 27, 2014

The Hole is proud to present the exhibition and performance series Future Feminism. Created by Antony, Kembra Pfahler, Johanna Constantine, Bianca Casady and Sierra Casady, Future Feminism will feature an exhibition of stoneworks in the main gallery and a thirteen-night performance and lecture series in Gallery 3. In this exhibition, they will debut the 13 Tenets of Future Feminism, a manifesto the artists and musicians have honed over the past three years from numerous retreats and meetings representing a frontier feminist perspective.

Each of the 13 nights, one of the 13 Tenets will be activated by the Future Feminists and their collaborators. Performances begin at 8pm, doors at 7:45pm, and all events are open to the public on a first come first serve basis. Suggested donation: $10. The opening reception is free.

Comprised of Sierra and Bianca Casady, CocoRosie recently premiered their collaboration of Bob Wilson’s Peter Pan in Paris and Berlin and completed a world tour in support their album Tales of a Grasswidow. “Sounding “like two little Billie Holidays an octave higher if you were on acid in Tokyo in 1926” - Jim Jarmusch

Antony - is a singer and visual artist. Antony and the Johnsons just returned from Madrid performing 4 nights at Teatro Real with Orquesta Titular del Teatro Real presenting the final incarnation of Swanlights originally commissioned by MoMA and performed at Radio City Music Hall in Jan of 2012. As a visual artist, he is represented by Sikema Jenkins Gallery in NYC where he is currently in a group show entitled Works on Paper (Sep. 2nd-Oct. 4th).

Kembra Pfahler - Kembra Pfahler is a Hole artist and has done many projects with the gallery since its inception. She founded The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black and is currently working on a performance technique with students called Performance Art 101. Her last show at The Hole was Giverny with E.V.Day, where she turned he gallery into a replica of Claude Monet’s garden in Giverny, France.

Johanna Constantine - Johanna Constantine is a dance based performance artist who recently danced at The Tate Modern in London in an exhibition by Charles Atlas.

These 5 artists (Antony, Kembra, Johanna, Bianca & Sierra Casady) have developed a series of vivid tenets for FUTURE FEMINISM during 3 years of intensive retreats. Collectively, they represent a frontier feminist point of view. FUTURE FEMINISM is a call to arms to reorganize ourselves as a species and affirm archetypally feminine values.

September 04, 2014

Ron Regé, Jr. is back with a self-published new cosmic comic. "COSMOGENESIS" is his illuminated interpretation of highlights from Madame Blavatsky's "The Secret Doctrine." It's 40 pages, and a signed, limited edition of 125 copies, so be sure to grab yours now.

He has also just released a 2nd printing of "Diana," his parody resurrection of 1940s Wonder Woman. I was crushed to have missed its first run which sold out quickly, so jumped on this as soon as it was announced. I suggest you do the same for both of these titles, and order yours here.

September 03, 2014

Juanita Guccione is such an undersung surrealist painter, so it's wonderful that there will be a retrospective of her work opening this month - and at The Seligmann Center no less. On her site's bio page, her work is described as "lyrical and astral" and I could not agree more. The show will be up from September 13th through November 1st, and one of the finest surrealism scholars in the world, Susan L. Aberth, will be giving a "Women in Surrealism" lecture in conjunction with it on Sunday, September 14th at 3pm. She did one in a similar vein for us at Observatory, so I can tell you firsthand it is not to be missed.

Juanita Guccione (1904-1999) is one such artist whose work--and life--mirrored the radically creative and philosophical underpinnings of Surrealism. After a childhood in Massachusetts and Brooklyn, Guccione became a fashion model in New York City in the 1920s; rather than falling into the romantic role of 'muse,' she studied at the Art Students League before venturing to France, Italy and Greece, supporting herself through portrait commissions. From there she sailed to Egypt, eventually settling in 1931 in Bou Saada, an artists' colony in Algeria, amongst the Ouled Nail tribe. Traveling among Bedouin nomads in the Sahara, she produced a diverse oeuvre of portraits and landscapes that in1935 would be exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum, alongside works by Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. After the birth of her son in 1934, Guccione returned to New York, designing murals with David Alfaro-Siqueiros for the Works Progress Administration and studying for seven years with Hans Hofman. Guccione infused social realism, cubism, surrealism and abstraction with her own indefinable and audacious style, creating an independent mythology and challenging social conventions in her art and life. Women populate her canvases in wonderland environments, alongside animals, architecture, and fantastical landscapes, at times hinting to world events, other times mystic explorations. The writer and poet Anais Nin said of Juanita, "Few people can paint the world of our dreams with as much magic, precision and clarity." Guccione's work continued to evolve and elude the interpretations of critics worldwide-- ultimately to her peril, as her name and art fell into relative obscurity.

The art critic Michael Welzenbach of the Washington Post writes that Guccione's "single-minded approach to her work, (her) willingness to follow its development wherever that might lead...locates (her) squarely among the few but formidable ranks of the modernist avant-garde--a group whose integrity and vision will not be seen again in this century."

LECTURE

Renowned author and art historian, Susan L. Aberth wrote the first monograph on the artist Leonora Carrington, Leonora Carrington: Surrealism, Alchemy and Art (2010), and is currently writing for the upcoming monograph of Juanita Guccione. Susan is recognized for her research in the fields of women artists and the Surrealist movement, as well as all Latin American art. She received her PhD in Art History from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York and is currently an Associate Professor of Art History at Bard College.

The exhibition and lecture are presented in partnership with Weinstein Gallery of San Francisco, California. The exhibition and lecture will be presented in Seligmann's Studio. Admission is free.

September 02, 2014

Stained glass creatrix extraordinaire, Judith Schaechter, is back at Claire Oliver Gallery with a new exhibition of her signature prismatic light boxes - and some bonus cast glass sculptures to boot. Her show, "Dark Matter," opens on Thursday, September 4th via a reception from 6-8pm.

Judith Schaechter: Dark MatterSeptember 4 - October 25, 2014

Judith Schaechter's 6th solo exhibition at Claire Oliver Gallery, extends for the first time the Artist's studio practice to include both two and three dimensional works of art. The exhibition includes eight new stained glass light boxes and ten new sculptures. Here Schaechter pushes her chosen medium yet again, this time carving and gouging into kiln cast glass to create her signature obsessive detail in the round.

Schaechter asks the viewer: in the creative mind, what comes first... our ability perceive an esthetic as meaningful or our ability to make those important images? For Schaechter, the desire Man has to seek beauty defies rationality and common sense. It can cause one to abandon safety and self - interest in its pursuit; under beauty's influence we can become vulnerable or out of control. Schaechter creates her work striving to make it "as beautiful as I possibly can." Beauty seduces. The viewer is lured in for close inspection and, once hooked, the content behind the bling is delivered lubricated by the star struck jewel tones and obsessive pattern. “I find man - made beauty the most interesting; a flower, a rainbow or a sunset can only be itself and follow its own independent destiny which includes its inevitable demise. But art by the hand of man can address our desires both directly and eternally; it has nothing better to do, in fact,” says the Artist.

For Schaechter it is clear that concept cannot be separated from process and material. Although glass is a material often associated with transparency and luminosity, the Artist deals with these aspects of the material in a new way, laying layer upon layer of colored glass one over the next to create new colors, depth and texture, much as a painter mixes pigments on a palette, Schaechter stretches the capabilities of the material beyond what is typically associated with it. Her glass resembles soap, wax, wood and stone; it is made to appear soft and compliant rather than sharp and cutting. Glass as a transparent material denies form with its refractive surfaces and light transmitting qualities; Dark Matter explores new possibilities this ancient medium can surrender.

Judith Schaechter's works of art are included in the permanent collections of many of the most important museums worldwide including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC, the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Washington, D.C., State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, U.K. Schaechter has been included in preeminent Biennales including the Venice Biennale and the Whitney Biennial. Among other prestigious awards, Ms. Schaechter is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a USA Artists Fellowship, Joan Mitchell Award, The Pew Fellowship in the Arts and two NEA grants.

August 25, 2014

I've been a longtime fan of Wonderella Printed, publishers and purveyors of the uncanny and the whimsical. Clint Marsh, the dear-hearted wizard behind the Wonderella curtain, has been putting out pamphlets and books such as "Goblinproofing One's Chicken Coop," "The Nature of Aether," and one of my personal favorites, "Red Rock, Black Sun" - and many more - for a glittering 21 years this summer. To celebrate, he has released the above beauteous poster by R. Black. Won't you celebrate along with him, and order one to grace your castle? It's a limited edition of 500, and at a mere $10 is a frugal way to add some luster into your life.

* 21 YEARS OF PRACTICAL ESOTERICA *

Wonderella Printed began publishing in July 1993 with the first issue of Real Life Magazine, a classic-style zine dedicated to the independent art and music scene in publisher Clint Marsh’s hometown of Ottumwa, Iowa. Since then, Wonderella’s offerings have grown progressively stranger and more attuned to Mr. Marsh’s unique view of the world, a genre of publishing he calls “practical esoterica.”

In honor of 21 years of producing books, pamphlets, and ephemera, Wonderella Printed is proud to present a specially commissioned poster by Bay Area graphic artist R. Black.

The Lady & The MoonWonderella first used its “Lady and Moon” logo in 2002. The first iteration of the image was copied from a 1606 alchemical textbook, Alchymia, by Andreas Libavius. In the image’s freestanding context as our logo, the white lilies and the female figure signify Clint’s astrological sign of The Virgin, and the moon represents illumination in the darkness, a goal of his work with Wonderella Printed. In 2009, artist Jeff Hoke updated the logo, and R. Black has given it a new spin for this poster.

About R. Black The striking, unmistakable visual style of graphic artist R. Black has graced hundreds of concert posters, book and magazine covers, and the outer walls of Berkeley’s Ashby Stage. In 2008, Dark Horse Comics published Futura: L’Art de R. Black, a collection of his rock poster art. Black divides his time between the San Francisco Bay Area and the Eastern Sierras.

Wonderella Turns 21 is an offset 3-color poster measuring 11 x 17 inches. It has been printed in a limited edition of 500 copies.